27 February 2013

Driving up Route 1 a few miles north of campus, one may spot a small plot called Cloverleaf Cemetery. Thanks to a well read 6th grader, I discovered why it is called that. The History Channel has a web page that describes this same plot of ground as home to the first highway cloverleaf in the US.

The problem is that I know that intersection well enough to know that there is no cloverleaf there. To figure it out I turned to imagery from the 1930s and 2007 and compared it.

But you won't find this in the post on New Jersey interchanges because it is not on an Interstate highway.

25 February 2013

Join us for a rare conversation with former Governors Brendan Byrne and James Florio, "The Pine Barrens" author John McPhee, Michele S. Byers of New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Carleton Montgomery
of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. Panelists will discuss how the
Pine Barrens were preserved and how to ensure their continued
protection. Hosted by NJTV's Michael Aron.

National Transportation Week isn't until June, but that can't keep us from spending a week celebrating the Interstate interchange. All of this weeks photos are derived from the USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). There are many more photos after the break.

21 February 2013

"The whole history of American Land, even of urban land, until not long ago, is a record of the wildest speculation. It is a part of our inheritance, and although the continent could have been developed by other means, the speculator's role is of the greatest importance in the founding and developing of the American community."

Connectivity and Collaboration in Planning and Design: The 14th annual International Conference on Digital Landscape Architecture DLA 2013 will be held in Bernburg and Dessau, Germany, 6 - 8 June, 2013. Check out the Conference Poster online.

Longtime readers know that Places and Spaces is a sucker for stories about our National Parks, but for reasons we will explain soon, there will be even more stories about National Parks and the National Park Service. In the meantime, here is one that is less fun:

The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees is reporting on closures and service reductions that would be implemented in some of the most heavily visited parks under sequestration. They remind readers that some of these actions (see Glacier) could have significant financial impacts on the surrounding communities.

Susannah
Drake of dLand Studio will discuss how the impacts of climate change
call for the development of new infrastructure systems that can be more
responsive to sea level rise and storm surge. Landscape architecture has
tremendous economic power and case studies will show how designers can
demonstrate that value. Through visualization of data to improve
understanding about the financial incentives of good environmental
design, these methods can also help to detangle the bureaucratic web
surrounding complex jurisdictional environments. Our knowledge when
communicated clearly can make real change happen.

The list includes a few I have already seen and can recommend (e.g., My Architect: A Son's Journey) and a few in my Netflix queue (Eames: The Architect and the Painter and The Pruitt-Igoe Myth). Sadly, the one I most want to see (Los Angeles Plays Itself) will probably never be released on DVD due to complicated rights issues. But that still leaves plenty that are more widely available.

18 February 2013

Later this week a notable talk will be given by Dr. Katharine Meehan, from the Department of Geography, University of Oregon (http://geography.uoregon.edu/Faculty/Meehan). Her talk is titled "Tool-power: the political life of water infrastructure in Tijuana".
Date: Friday, February 22, 2013
Time: 3:00pm
Location: Lucy Stone Hall B-115, Livingston Campus, Rutgers

Matt Artz and Shannon McIlvaney have developed an impressive and extensive bibliography on geodesign that is kept at GIS and Science. Admittedly, it is less academic, but the volume is impressive and captures the growing substance of this nascent field with both breadth and depth.
It seems like the next step is for someone to step up and develop a more selective annotated bibliography that serves to define the core of the field.

14 February 2013

This post on the ethics of community mapping raises some great questions. It asks the tough questions that every VGI and PPGIS person should be asking, like:
"Is digital mapping really about communities, or are we really just using
communities as a backdrop to showcase our own innovation and coolness
or that of our donors?"

It is based on the NY Technology Salon panel from February. Good stuff.

11 February 2013

“Inhabiting Topography”
The
territory of architecture should concern itself with the whole of the
built environment. Heightened disciplinary distinctions between
architecture, art, infrastructure, landscape architecture, and urban
planning marginalize the status of the architectural project, precluding
new paradigms for contemporary settings. These issues will be critiqued
through a series of recent multidisciplinary projects completed by
WEISS/MANFREDI.

Firm Profile
WEISS/MANFREDI
Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is at the forefront of architectural
design practices that are redefining the relationships between
landscape, architecture, infrastructure, and art. The firm’s projects
are noted for clarity of vision, bold and iconic forms, and material
innovation. Named one of North America's "Emerging Voices" by the
Architectural League of New York, WEISS/MANFREDI’s distinct vision was
recognized in 2004 by the Arts and Letters Award in Architecture from
the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Additional honors include the
Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal—an international recognition awarded to one
architect annually—and the New York AIA Gold Medal.

In an Online Exclusive, the new GeoWorld (sorry about the ads) provides some details and well-deserved attention for IMSOICIO's gas station mapping project. Kudos to the students for their high-profile efforts. And kudos to GeoWorld for giving them some attention within the GIS community.

06 February 2013

Not much bloging today, but a few good links because the imagery was so engaging. It was fascinating to hear her boldly show us how she has stripped away context and landscape (2 things we treasure most).

Geospatial education has grown substantially in recent decades, but where is it going? Where should it be going?

GeoPlace/GeoWorld got comments from some GIS experts on the state of geospatial technology education. Jack Dangermond of Esri raises concerns about STEM needing a clearer link to spatial (STEMS?). Steve Woolven of Applanix says:

The basic skills of map reading and navigation also are taught, but
because students rarely use these basic skills in life, the question is
"Do they really learn it, or is it something quickly forgotten?"

03 February 2013

As Acting Graduate Director, I have been talking to potential students about Rutgers' graduate program in landscape architecture and have been trying to explain, specific to their situation, why this is the best landscape architecture program in the northeast or in the US. Clearly one of the most important things is that both the BSLA and MLA program are situated within Rutgers' School of Environmental and Biological Sciences making one of the best schools for linking ecology and landscape architecture.

"To me, what results is an awkward, cramped, banal pastiche of tiers
facing claustrophobia-inducing windows, built around a space-wasting
atrium with a curved staircase more suited to a Las Vegas hotel.”

About the Author

An Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture in Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. He also serves as Associate Director of the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis and Undergradaute Program Director for Environmental Planning and Design. As a graduate of Kentucky (BSLA), LSU (MLA) and Wisconsin (PhD), he has a passion for the critical role of state universities as a source for world-class research and education based on inquiry arousal but is too busy keeping up this award-winning blog. Dr. Tulloch can be reached at dtulloch[at]crssa.rutgers.edu

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